A Samsung ad revealed on Saturday pits Apple's new iPhone 5 directly against the Galaxy S III, listing the two handsets' features side-by-side in what appears to be a highly subjective comparison.

Titled "It doesn't take a genius," Samsung's new print ad obviously references Apple's widely-panned TV spots and customer support representatives, called "Geniuses." Ironically, Samsung's ad also serves to point out that the company does not offer the same level of hands-on customer care.

The main thrust of the advertisement is to illustrate the huge amount of features the Galaxy S III has over the iPhone 5, with the extremely long list of trademarked smartphone functions doubling those found on Apple's new device. Going further, most of the tech specs Samsung chose to attribute to the iPhone are trumped by its own unit.

Things get a bit tongue-in-cheek when Apple's new Lightning connector is mentioned, of course as a negative, with Samsung describing the part as "A totally different plug" versus the S III's "Standard micro USB plug.

While not unexpected, the ad fails to mention the numerous enhancements coming with iOS 6, Apple's mobile operating system that some say gives the company an edge over other smartphone makers because it can tailor the software and hardware in-house. The fact that Samsung's handset uses a year-old version of Android was not mentioned.

Samsung's ad is scheduled to go to press on Sunday, though it is not clear what publications in which it will be running.

Originally Posted by AnalogJack
As Apple continues to take more control over their hardware components I expect future iPhones and Apple products to pull away even quicker from the pack.

As the PowerPC was faster than its Megahertz Myth-fueled X86 competitors, Apple's homebrew chips will be work far, FAR better than anything else on the market, because Apple will be controlling the software… and TRULY controlling the hardware. Down to the architecture.

Because those operators can be unfriendly and unhelpful! And have stereotypically nasal voices. Step into the future and directly call the person on the other end!

Haha, nice. Actually out of all Samsung's gimmicks Direct Call is the only one useful for me. If you're in messaging thread, and texting is no longer useful, just put the phone to your and it calls them automatically. On topic, this ad seems rather desperate and fails at multiple levels.

EDIT: There should be a rule about not spamming the same long post nearly every time you post something.(Quadra)

They are only showing a small section of the iPhone and with the screen off. I guess they don't want people to compare the Retina Display vs their HD screen. Its funny how the GS III has more visible phone showing and the iPhone is cropped more.

They are only showing a small section of the iPhone and with the screen off. I guess they don't want people to compare the Retina Display vs their HD screen. Its funny how the GS III has more visible phone showing and the iPhone is cropped more.

When i first saw this post, i said "damn that iPhone looks so bad ass stealthy"

They are only showing a small section of the iPhone and with the screen off. I guess they don't want people to compare the Retina Display vs their HD screen. Its funny how the GS III has more visible phone showing and the iPhone is cropped more.

Not surprising that it's cropped. The iPhone screen on showing Springboard would only remind people of the compelling user experience Apple has pioneered, in addition to the beautiful high color saturation retina display. Samsung's ad had managed to reduce the iPhone 5 into a shopping list of components. So if you're in the market for a big list components, Samsung has you covered. If you're in the market for The iPhone Experience, Samsung can't deliver. It's probably why the screen on the iPhone is off. Also, where would their marketing people get a working iPhone 5 that is fully assembled? It's either a pre-announcement prop, a photoshop of something official, or (outside chance) the real thing.

Originally Posted by macminiwii
That may be true. I think they could have shown the lock screen or put a Flower or any picture on the screen. You know they could have used the white iPhone to compare with.

Ah, but by making their phone white and the competitor's black, theirs pops out of the advertisement more and catches attention.

… That's the only intelligent thing marketing-wise they seem to have done here.

Samsung just keeps on being obnoxious. (I'm not saying the iPhone 5 is the end-all be-all phone, but this ad is definitely deceptive.)
What I cannot tell is how many buyers this will fool.

That's the standard Android nonsense. They are incapable of discussing actual benefits or quality, so they simply resort to a list of specs. For example, by all reports, the Apple screen is significantly better than the Samsung one - but they use marketing hype to make it sound like the Samsung screen is better. Similarly, they act like their 2 GB of RAM is better than Apple's 1 GB - yet in the past, Apple's phones have regularly outperformed phones even with better specs.

They still don't get it. It's not about a list of features. It's about quality, the ecosystem, and what you can do with the phone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

Perhaps they can't show iOS in their ads.

Actually, you can - under at least some circumstances. You can photograph any item that is available to the public. The problem is that this phone is not available to the public yet, so they could only show a simulated picture. Even that is OK under some circumstances. They clearly didn't want to do it - because the intent of the ad is to try to belittle Apple's phone. Apparently, they decided that the only way their phone was better was if the Apple phone was turned off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

I notice also that they do not credit the terms iOS, iPhone, or Siri to Apple in the fine print. Is that legal?

No, it's not. Registered trademarks must be recognized. But when did Samsung ever shy from a little trademark infringement?

It's a demonstration of their incredible arrogance and belief that they're above the law. You'd have thought that a billion dollar penalty would have made them pay at least a little attention to US law.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13